Underwater ordnance disposal systems are known. For example, traditional mine sweeping vessels drag either lines to mechanically trigger the ordnance or a decoy to remotely trigger the ordnance for example by simulating the magnetic or acoustic signature of a vessel being targeted by the ordnance. This type of mine sweeping is dangerous as it requires the vessel to enter the area containing the ordnance. In addition, unsweepable ordnance has been developed which prevents the use of such a system.
Other types of ordnance disposal systems are known, and enable remote, i.e. remote from a vessel such as a mine countermeasures vessel (MCMV), operation. Examples of such known systems are diver placed charges, remotely operated single charge systems, and multiple charge deployment systems.
The diver placed charges may be attached to the ordnance by a variety of means such as a rope, or mechanical fixings, etc and can be triggered by a variety of means such as a timer, or a flash exploder. Diver placed charges are inherently dangerous for the diver, and time consuming to clear an area containing the ordnance to be disposed.
Remotely operated single charge systems provide the advantage over diver placed charges that a human is not required to enter the area containing the ordnance. A number of remotely operated single charge systems are known. Such systems may have an onboard target identification system, or they may be controlled from a surface vessel. These systems may require an identification vehicle to be used to identify the ordnance before releasing the charge system. Where the system has a target identification system onboard, there may be the need for significant time to be spent to train the system to identify ordnance. As such, the single charge systems are time consuming, and may not correctly identify ordnance. Furthermore, once launched from a vessel in an armed state, the charge can not be recovered safely and so is always triggered, but due to the difficulties associated with identifying ordnance may sometimes neutralise non-ordnance targets. This leads to a high attrition rate of the charges, which leads to operational problems. Due to the complete destruction of the vehicles associated with such systems at neutralisation, the operational costs are high.
A known remotely operated multiple charge deployment system enables more than one ordnance to be targeted in a single sortie. The known system enables more than one charge to be dropped separately, each charge being dropped in the vicinity of a different ordnance to be neutralised. The known multiple charge deployment systems utilise a blast charge which is operationally limited in its employment As used herein, the term ‘sortie’ refers to a single launch of a charge deployment system from a MCMV.